Real Estate News

9 Killer Content Creation Ideas for Your Real Estate Blog or Website

RISMEDIA, September 2, 2010—What’s the number one absolute best way to get more organic traffic to your real estate blog, website or lead capture pages?

Content creation. (“But, what on earth am I supposed to be writing about or videoing,…

RISMEDIA, September 2, 2010—What’s the number one absolute best way to get more organic traffic to your real estate blog, website or lead capture pages?

Content creation. (“But, what on earth am I supposed to be writing about or videoing, and how will it get me business?”)

We’ve talked about this concept a number of times before, and a few months ago we detailed a plan for how this might work, called the 2010 Real Estate Broker Market Domination Plan. The plan itself lays out a strategy for how you might go about creating an architecture for leveraging agent created content to zoom the GCI of your office or team, but it doesn’t go too much into specifics about what kind of content you might create.

So here’s a list of possible topics you and your team might be contributing to a central real estate blog monster site on a regular basis.

9 killer niche content creation ideas for real estate agents and brokers:

Before you read the rest of this, imagine that you have one person on your team assigned to each of these ideas, with the requirement that they deliver the related content to the site you own on a regular basis. Or if you are a single person shop, simply pick one or more and make it your job to create one piece of content for your real estate blog or website each and every day.

1. Weekly market update – Take a 5 minute video or screencast interpreting data from your MLS and the general mood amongst buyers and agents in order to deliver a public update on the state of the local real estate marketplace

2. Daily/weekly transaction report - Cut and paste the reported transactions from your MLS as this will garner a lot of organic traffic especially long tail stuff related to property addresses in your area. Be sure to include “real estate sales transactions” in the title of each post—wherever you are, people are searching those keywords.

3. Restaurant of the week - Want to charm the pants off of a local restaurant owner and provide a valuable resource for folks relocating to your area? Do a restaurant review once a week and be sure to include a picture of your dish and why you loved it so much. Chances are good that especially for smaller restaurants and markets, your post will rank organically for people doing a direct search of the restaurant name.

4. Business of the week – This is the same as the restaurant idea listed above: recommend doing actual video tours of each business highlighting the coolest service/product to buy from the place. Can you see this helping you gain top of mind status with the local business owner, then a bunch of referrals as he talks you up to other patrons?

5. Local dog parks – People moving to your area with pets are going to do a search engine search for dog parks in the area. Talk about a non-competitive keyword.

6. “Where in (insert your area here)?” - Take a random photo of a person, place, or thing in your area and post it to your site. Offer a prize to the first reader who guesses what the picture is. Be sure to offer an e-mail signup for folks to receive your latest pictures so they can be one of the first to take a guess.

7. Weekly neighborhood news update – Give each agent in your office an assigned neighborhood and require a piece of hyper local content. Run with this for a month and see what happens to your recruiting/retention efforts.

8. Resident interviews – Interview someone in your area and ask them what they like about their town, what they like to do, where the best place to grab a drink with friends is and anything else along those lines. This is an easy way to generate content that’s interesting to onlookers.

9. Contract chronicles – Grab a clause from one of your real estate forms and tear it to pieces—a nice way to demonstrate competence while creating content that’s sure to be indexed and searched. If you don’t already have an article and a downloadable copy of the standard “Residential Lease” for your state on your website, be sure to get this on your site now.

Here’s the thing, the content you create today will most likely equal traffic to your website tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and probably years and years for now.

If you invest a few minutes creating content for your website today, it’ll pay off for years to come.

If you get 20-50-100 agents in your office each investing a few minutes a week to create content, it’ll pay off for years to come, help you establish local market dominance and make your website the most valuable asset your business has—your piece of cyberspace could be worth 6 figures a year from now if you play it right.

Now that we’ve given you nine great ideas, find out the simplest way to put those ideas into action (hint: its video) by visiting http://realestatevideotoolbox.com.

Josh Schoenly and Ryan Hartman are co-owners of ReTechulous, LLC.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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Mortgage and Title Companies Using MLS SEO Technology to Feed Agents Home Buyer Leads

RISMEDIA, September 2, 2010—Lately I have been talking to a lot of mortgage lenders and title reps who are trying to find ways to get real estate agents and brokers to start sending business their way in the form of…

The common complaint from the mortgage reps is that they are supposed to go out and knock on doors and shake hands but have very little leverage and provide no reciprocation to secure a working relationship with real estate agents.

The same complaint also comes from real estate agents. I was recently speaking to one real estate agent who flat out said: “We need more than coffee and donuts from mortgage and title companies if they want our business.”

Although the quote got a good laugh from the meeting attendees, it is actually a very serious subject for mortgage and title companies who provide necessary services to new home buyers and need relationships with agents to grow and expand their business.

The good news for the title and mortgage companies is that they are now able to generate home buyer leads through a new cutting edge MLS SEO technology that adds and builds Web pages onto their existing website (or a new one) and secure business from real estate agents by giving them leads for home buyers and sellers.

Although the technology is referred to as “MLS SEO,” it actually in many cases uses data from Google Base to create thousands of Web pages that go in and target long tailed keywords.

Google Base does not have the same restrictions as MLS data and includes bank owned listings and For Sale by Owner properties that are not listed on the MLS.

Fortune 500 companies like Amazon.com, Netflix and iTunes already know that long tailed keywords provide high conversions for sales coming from the Internet and now the real estate industry is also starting to wake up and start moving in that direction as well.

Long tailed keyword searches account for about 70% of all real estate searches done by online consumers and the quality of the leads is generally better since the searches are much more targeted and specific.

In addition, many large real estate brokerages are finding that the more places they export their listings, the more visibility and sales they get. Exporting listing data to Trulia, Zillow, Yahoo Real Estate, Google Base and other major portals are becoming mainstream places to list properties for large and medium sized real estate brokerages looking to expand visibility and SEO capabilities.

By using the listing data from Google Base, this new technology can create thousands of Web pages with each one targeting a specific long tailed keyword being used by consumers anywhere in the USA, Canada, Australia and around the world.

One title company in Phoenix recently sponsored a “Super Site,” which built out Phoenix and 300 local communities and the response was overwhelming. Agents were scrambling to secure areas on the website to get leads and the title company did something that very few others have been able to do, and that is set up a system to provide leads for real estate agents and build their referral network business.

Mortgage companies and title companies are starting to come out of their shells and realize that if they can produce home buyer leads, they not only have an audience to offer their services to, but also can secure a small army of loyal real estate agents who will be happy to reciprocate the business and throw loans and title service customers back their way.

The day is coming where mortgage and title companies who expect to grow and survive will realize that implementing new MLS SEO technology and feeding agents leads is a much healthier way to run a business than feeding them

donuts. More importantly, this patent pending technology gives power back to the reps knocking on doors to secure relationships of real estate agents by offering something tangible in return—and that is more home sales.

For more information on this patent pending MLS SEO service for real estate agents and mortgage lenders, call Sean Callahan at 800-246-9976 or e-mail him at: info@multimediaicon.biz.

Sean Callahan is an Internet Marketing Consultant and founder of Real Estate Marketing Nerds and co-founder of Multimedia Icon Inc. He has worked with thousands of real estate agents and brokers over the last 10 years providing Internet marketing services and information. He is also a public speaker and has helped teach thousands of small business owners how to effectively market themselves online.

For more information, visit www.multimediaicon.biz or www.realestatemarketingnerds.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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What International Home Buyers Want and What You Should Know

RISMEDIA, September 2, 2010—Thanks to some favorable conditions, like perceived value and affordability, international home buyers, especially from Canada, Mexico, China and India are eyeing the U.S. a bit more these days. Over 40% of the international home-buying transactions come from these four countries. And you can capitalize on these buyers more easily than you might think, but first you should learn more about them.

These prospects typically come from referrals provided by previous clients and the Internet. Most fall into two categories, with 41% primarily residing in another country and 38% being recent immigrants and short-term visa holders; some are both. These international purchasers account for 7% of the residential market or property sales of $66 billion annually.

These buyers have particular tastes when it comes to real estate. South American purchasers focus on Florida, while Asians the West Coast. Europeans concentrate on the eastern states, while Mexicans are attracted to Texas. The proximity and ease of travel back to their home country plays a primary role in their search. The Southern U.S. accounts for 45% of international sales, with the West at 32%, the Midwest 13%, and the Northeast 10%.

By now, you may be wondering a bit about language barriers and other cultural issues, and while this is important in many cases, Canada and the United Kingdom make up 32% of the international real estate purchases in the U.S. All of these families will certainly have special needs and questions, but attracting them in the first place is the key, along with understanding what they are looking for and why, just like any other client.

International buyers often face a challenge with financing in the U.S., but over 50% buy properties with cash, are looking in reasonable price ranges of $250,000 or less, and overwhelmingly prefer detached, single-family homes in suburban areas.

The dollar’s value against their currency does drive interest directly with these buyers, but so do affordability, climate and other factors. As this niche is reportedly showing some increase, it may be time for you to do some research, and add information and services to your website. You should also expand your search engine marketing and incorporate this into your other online and offline branding efforts.

Source: The 2010 NAR Profile of International Home Buying Activity

Chris Kaucnik is marketing director for Home Warranty of America, Inc.

For more information, visit www.hwahomewarranty.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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FHA Gives Home Buyers One Month Window to Lock in Low Insurance Premium

RISMEDIA, September 2, 2010—“The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is giving homeowners and buyers until October 4, 2010 to lock in a low monthly insurance premium,” said Gibran Nicholas, chairman of the CMPS Institute, an organization that trains and certifies mortgage bankers and brokers. “After October 4, the monthly insurance premiums on FHA loans will increase by over 63%.”

What does this mean for home buyers?
A home buyer purchasing a $200,000 home using a $193,000 FHA mortgage before October 4 would pay an insurance premium of $88.46 per month. If the same home buyer waits until after October 4, the insurance premium would jump to $148.01.

“In this example, the home buyer would lose $59.55 per month, or $7,146 over a ten year timeframe,” Nicholas said. “Although the upfront mortgage insurance premium is going down after October 4, the real impact to the home buyer is actually a net increase in their out of pocket costs because the monthly premium is going up by 63%. Remember, sellers can pay the upfront premium or it can be financed into the loan amount, so home buyers rarely pay the upfront premium out of pocket. On the other hand, the increase in the monthly premiums will be paid right out of the home buyer’s pocket with their mortgage payment each month.”

Ironically, home buyers who plan to be in the mortgage for less than three years and decide to pay the upfront fee themselves (instead of having the seller pay it for them), may actually save money by waiting until after October 4 to apply for an FHA loan. “Home buyers with a short term time horizon may actually benefit from this change because the upfront premium will be reduced to 1% from 2.25%,” Nicholas said. This change will impact over 30% of the home buyers in today’s market who use FHA-insured financing. Home buyers considering an FHA loan should find and contact a CMPS professional in their area to discuss their options and what this means for their situation. Also, you can follow CMPS Institute on Twitter to stay updated on these and other mortgage and housing industry developments.

For more information, visit www.cmpsinstitute.org.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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Zillow.com Partners with Apartments.com to Bring National Database of Managed Apartment Rental Listings to Zillow

RISMEDIA, September 2, 2010—Zillow.com and Apartments.com, two of the nation’s leading online destinations for real estate and multifamily housing, respectively, announced a partnership to bring the Apartments.com national database of 90,000 managed apartment rental listings to Zillow. Apartments.com rental listings include comprehensive home details, photos, floorplans and property manager contact information—bringing the full search experience from Apartments.com to Zillow.

Listings from Apartments.com will receive exposure to Zillow’s 12 million monthly visitors, nearly two million of whom are currently renters. This syndication brings the total number of rental listings for single-family homes and apartments on Zillow.com to 150,000.

In addition to being displayed on Zillow, Apartments.com rental listings will also appear on the Zillow Mobile application, which has been downloaded more than two million times and is one of the most popular real estate applications on the iPhone, Android, iPad and Windows Mobile platforms.

“Zillow offers an unmatched user experience for home shoppers who are renting, deciding whether to rent or buy, or shopping for a home to buy. This partnership deepens Zillow’s footprint in the rental search industry, and gives Zillow users access to a new category of managed apartment rental listings,” said Chloe Harford, Zillow’s vice president of mortgages and new ventures.

Kevin Doyle, senior vice president and general manager from Apartments.com adds, “Our new partnership with Zillow is extending our reach to renters. By creating easy and convenient access to our listings, Apartments.com is able to drive highly qualified apartment shoppers to the leasing offices of our advertisers through unmatched exposure.”

In December 2009, Zillow added rental listings to its database of 100 million U.S. homes to complement its four million for-sale listings. Using the industry’s first monthly payment search filter, Zillow lets home shoppers search by a monthly payment they can afford, and simultaneously browse for-sale and for-rent homes. This is a helpful benefit as one in four (25%) home shoppers plan to search for both homes to buy and homes to rent, according to a recent Zillow survey.

Zillow home shoppers can also search for listings by neighborhood, zip code or city, and numerous home characteristics.

For more information, visit www.zillow.com and www.apartments.com.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

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